Foto Go-Go

How to Create Rugged High-Impact Portraits with Photoshop

2010-10-13T21:45:00.001-07:00

Photo credit Joel Bedford via flickr

When shooting film, a green filter slapped on the camera and an unsharp mask in the darkroom could get you all the wonderful gritty badassery you could want from a portrait. Ever wondered how those ultra hard-edged portraits get made digitally? Wonder no more!

Though the tutorial was done on an older version of Photoshop, the steps remain pretty much unchanged through CS5.

Here's an older example of this technique that I did on my of my own mug. Like anything, it gets easier with practice and patience.

Shooting in Fog or Mist to Capture Lighting Effects

2010-09-08T11:50:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow morning I leave for the Hawaiian island of Oahu. I'll be gone for a week enjoying the sun, surf, forests, and beaches of the North Shore. Tough life, I know. But before I go, I wanted to leave you with a tutorial over on Cambridge in Color on How to Take Photos in Fog, Mist or Haze. It could come in handy as summer gives way to fall over the next month, and the dawn hours begin to fill up with fog.

Now, did I remember to pack everything?

How to Take Photos in Fog, Mist or Haze via Gizmodo

Way Beyond Monochrome is on the way...

2010-09-05T09:29:00.001-07:00

Just got an email this morning from Ralph W. Lambrecht, one of the authors of the book Way Beyond Monochrome. He says that, "...the books are on the boat from Hong Kong to the US right now, which means the official release date of Oct, 15th will be held."

Hooray!

For those of you that haven't heard of this book, the previous edition was put out in 2003, and now goes for around $150 on the used market. This new version comes out in a month and can be pre-ordered RIGHT NOW for about $56 on Amazon by clicking here.

This new version covers topics from the basic to the advanced, and is geared towards the advanced amateur or professional photographer who has spent time in the darkroom developing film and creating prints. From the Table of Contents, topics include Print Control, Intro to the Zone System, Mounting and Matting, Print Spotting, Framing and Displaying, Pinhole, Unsharp Masking, and Digital Negatives, to mention just a very few. The authors have generously provided PDF previews of several sections of the book, and can be found on the online Table of Contents.

The previous version of the book was wildly successful, and this new edition has doubled the volume of content, is now hardbound, and contains over 1000 images. I can't wait to get my hands on it! I'll have a review for everyone just as soon as my copy arrives.

The pre-order link is here.

The website for Way Beyond Monochrome is here.

Shooting in Golden Gate Park with Jose & Emily

2010-09-01T14:54:00.001-07:00

This weekend Jose and me ran out to Golden Gate park with our friend Emily for a portrait session. I love getting together with Jose, he's just such a wonderful source of inspiration and I get to push myself into doing different things artistically. I'm not really a portrait photographer, so this is a refreshing break once in awhile.

Project Pinholaroid

2010-04-23T18:23:00.001-07:00

In honor of the upcoming World Pinhole Day, I decided to embark on a little build project of my own when I discovered a trashed Polaroid 210 Land Camera at a resale shop in Oakland. I really love taking pinhole pictures, and I love even more the instant gratification provided by instant film!

Now, for those of you that don't know, Polaroid no longer makes instant film, but there are a couple of companies that still produce compatible film, one being Fuji and the other is called the Impossible Project, which has some lovely Polaroid-compatible film, and is marketed at a more artistic market.

The Polaroid 210 Land camera is one of a family of cameras made by Polaroid that takes peel-apart style 100 series instant film. As you can see, it's pretty damn fugly. Mine, having been yanked from a dark corner of a junk shop, looked even worse than this one. Pretty much the only thing worth saving on these cameras is the back. the back is where all the magic happens on these cameras anyway. It's what holds the pack of film, and its where the rollers are located that squish the chemicals across the film after the exposure. If you can find a camera with nice, clean rollers and a backside that isn't too gross, snag it!

Here's all the crap we DON'T need removed from the back of the camera. You can rip off the bellows, the lens, the viewfinder, the strap, the shutter button and the electrical cords. Note that there will be a few areas that can leak light if you don't cover them with something; we'll get to that a few steps from now.

Here is the back. This is really the only part of the camera worth anything at this point. Clean it up with some Goof-Off or rubbing alcohol, and make sure the back opens and closes nicely.

This is a check-fit of the new camera front. you'll want to cut an opening the same size as the film-plane opening, and make sure it's centered over that window so everything lines up later on. I'm using black foamcore. It's cheap and rigid and easy to work with. Glue that sucker on with some contact cement, and we're on out way...

Here I've constructed the barrel of the camera, after deciding on a focal length of 58mm and a pinhole diameter of .013 inches. This gives me an f-stop number of 176 (thanks Mr. Pinhole!) and a field of view of 87 degrees.

This is a view of the top of the camera, and everything fits super snug.

Front of the camera with the lensboard in the check-fit position and the pinhole in place (Here's a good place to start if you want to drill your own pinhole). I've also made a sliding shutter mechanism out of a piece of 4-ply mat board that slides in between the lensboard and another piece of foamcore with an appropriately sized channel carved out.

A view of the inside of the camera, you can see the pinhole taped in place up front and the metal shim blackened with permanent maker to reduce internal reflection.

At this point I took a break and created a cute little graphic overlay to jazz up the front of the camera. Black foamcore is pretty unexciting.

Custom artwork in place and shutter tab colored in. Ta-dah! All that is left to do is cover up the hole where the viewfinder was and plug up a few screw holes with gaffer's tape.

Here is the sassy little bad-boy. Just in time for World Pinhole Day!!!

Pics to follow soon-ish.

Now THIS is dedication

2009-11-02T11:15:00.001-08:00

This person is my personal hero. Talk about dedication to the art of photography!

Click on over to the Flickr page here.

Mea Culpa

2009-11-01T17:15:00.001-08:00

I have been a bad, bad little blogger. No new posts in over a week? Good grief, how the time flies.

In my defense, I was super busy putting together my halloween costume. Here in SF, we don't mess around when it comes to dressing up.

So, by way of apology, here is what I've been working on and a promise to return to form next week with more consistent updates and a review of the Olympus XA film camera.

Review of the Canon CanoScan 8800F Film/Flatbed Scanner

2009-10-21T19:57:00.001-07:00

After playing with the CanoScan 8800F combination film/flatbed scanner, I've taken the time today to write up a quick review of the unit, and also to give some helpful tips when scanning film. For all of you full-frame nuts out there that shoot into the sprocket holes or to the very edges of your medium format film, I invite you to skip ahead in the review, as I ran into a bit of a software issue when scanning without the film masks provided.

The CanoScan 8800F is replacing a flatbed scanner I had for years (also a Canon), but lacked the ability to scan film. A film scanner needs a backlight to properly push light through the film and into the imaging sensor. Trying to rig up some backlighting contraption with a lamp or a cellphone yielded some pretty awful looking scans. I decided to go ahead and bite the bullet, and plunk down the $180 or so it cost (a Lomo LC-A would cost more than this) on the scanner. I got a pretty good deal from Buydig.com, and had it in a little over a week.

It comes really well packed, the film guides provided work really well as long as you're not planning on doing full-framed scans, and the scanning software works pretty great with Photoshop. I also really like that this one is powered with an AC wall adapter instead of through the USB port like my old scanner.

I had it up and running in about 10 mins, scanning some prints just to test it out. The real joy came when I tossed some 35 mm film into the film guides. It worked like a charm, doing everything I expected it to. Scans are pretty slow when going above 1000 DPI, but there is no warm up time with this scanner since all the illumination comes from LEDs.

Ah, but I always like to make life difficult, and I wasn't really happy until I was certain I could scan full frame negatives, from 35 mm on up to 120. It turns out you can, with a little tweaking.

First, you're going to have to mask off the area illuminated by the backlight. This I accomplished by using blue painter's tape (no sticky residue left behind) and using the lid to approximate where on the platen the backlight covers.

Then, after making sure the area was as free of dust as an Intel chip factory, I placed the negatives on the glass, keeping a portion of the glass clear of film along the topmost edge of the platen (the scanner needs this area clear to calibrate itself, you can see where by looking at the top edge of the film guides).

Then it was simply a matter of using a piece of clean glass (you can hardly see it in this pic, it's so clean!) to weigh down the negs and keep them flat.

BUT, and this is where I spent a good long time pulling my hair out, when I tried doing a preview scan, this is what I got:

Click the photo to see it in full size.

I got the crazy blue, "What are you doing, Dave?" color cast from the scanner. Presumably because it has no idea where to set the black point without the film guides in place. But, with a little fooling around, I figured it out and here's how to set it right:

First, make a selection small enough to fit inside part of the scanned film that does not include any direct light from the backlight. This means no sprocket holes, too.

Click the photo to see it in full size.

Once you've done that, look over at the Exposure/Tone Settings menu on the right column of the scanning window. Click the Reset button, then check the Manual Exposure box (leave the value set at 100%), and then hit the Apply button.

Now you can drag out your selection to cover the whole area of the negative you'd like to scan.

Click the photo to see it in full size.

Tah-Dah! Now all you have to do is set your DPI (I use 1000-1200 for 35 mm) and hit the Scan button.

I hope that helps! You'll probably have a bit of retouching to do in photoshop to cover up any specks of dust, but a lot of that can be avoided by using an anti-static brush to clean your negs right before you place them on the scanner, and by making sure your platen glass is super clean each time you go to scan.

Thats all! Enjoy yourself and the freedom provided by being able to scan it yourself instead of having a lab do it.

Happy Snapping!

Miles Aldridge for the Lavazza 2010 Calendar

2009-10-21T10:26:00.001-07:00

Each year, The Lavazza coffee company hires an influential photographer to shoot an extravagant, fashion editorial-style series of photos for their limited edition calendar. This year it was British photographer Miles Aldridge, taking his inspiration from well known Italian songs.

I'm loving the bright colors, the technicolor feel, and most of all, that he's shooting on film.

Seen at telegraph.co.uk

Making Film Photography Cheaper (or at least something approaching affordable)

2009-10-20T18:04:00.001-07:00

Part of the beauty of film photography as a hobby is that with a minimal investment in equipment and materials, it remains one of the least expensive artistic endeavors one can get involved in. You really don't even need to buy or own a camera.
With pinhole photography, you can turn a matchbox, a can of spam, or really any light-tight box into a working camera. All that's really required to purchase is the film and developing.

Photo Credit: SPAMera by Chris Keeney

Further down the rabbit hole, we enter the world of Lomography and toy cameras. Lomography is a catchall phrase coined by an Austrian company that has come to include the LOMO LC-A, the Diana+, the Holga, and a huge list of other toy cameras with limited functionality. There are toy cameras (like the LC-A) that go for upwards of $200, but for sheer fun and a low price, my favorite of the bunch is the Holga. It's a pretty good platform to hack and to mod, some examples of that can be found on Squarefrog's site. I've also done my fair bit of tutorials on this blog.

Shooting with expired film is a terrific way to save money. I recently purchased newly expired film on ebay and saved a huge amount (20 rolls of Kodak MAX 35mm / 36 exposures for $18 including shipping). The way film is stored has a lot to do with how long it will hold for. The expiration date is just an indicator given by the manufacturer by which they recommend having your film developed. Film can be stored frozen indefinitely, refrigerated for years, and on the shelf for months. I've seen beautiful results on Flickr from people that shoot with expired film. The results can be subtle or dramatic, but the serendipitous nature of photography is what helps make it exciting, right?

photo credit: pixelatedscraps via Flickr

About developing: Most hour photo labs have to send out for 120 format film like the Holga uses. As much as I dislike Walmart, it does do a fair job of developing color 120 film and will even cross process you film if you specify that on the package. There's a nice how-to over here.

If you shoot black and white, I strongly encourage you to invest the $50 or so it would take you to get a setup to develop your own film. It's not even about saving money on developing (although you will), but you have so much more control over how the film turns out than when you hand it over to a lab, even a good one. There's a pretty decent Instructables post that outlines the process, and I intend to create one that details my own process in the near future. I think it's a lot easier than most people suppose, though like anything in photography, it can get very nuanced very quickly. Basically, if you can make cookies from scratch you can develop film. It's all about mixing stuff and timing.

From there, most photo labs have a scanning/digitizing service to get your pictures onto a CD. There are any number of services online or through iPhoto that will help you get some really nice prints for a pretty decent price. Even Flickr has a service like this.

If you're not getting prints made by a photo lab and you've decided photography is a fun hobby, you can and should invest in a decent film scanner. A low-end combination flatbed/film Epson goes for about $150, and the Canon that I currently use (Canoscan 8800F, and I'm very pleased with it) was around $180 after shopping around online.

So, yeah. Getting back to my point at the first part of this post, photography can be extremely inexpensive, but it is also very easy to get swept up in all of the "stuff" and spend way too much. Photography is a simple process; we're exposing a plane of sensitized film to a beam of light coming in through a lens. No, scratch that last part, if you're doing pinhole photography, you don't even need a lens. Then it's a matter of revealing the latent image on the film with the right mix of chemicals and having prints made or scanning the image into a computer.

The basic tools for this process have been around for decades yielding beautiful pictures, but in a pixel-perfect world it's easy to become obsessed with digital perfection. In my opinion there is still plenty of room for creativity and originality in the area of film photography. I use a camera much like a sketchbook; to record scraps and bits of my life in an artful way. Let the digitally-obsessed have their 12 megapixel DSLRs. As long as I've got a crappy camera and a roll of film, I'm happy.

Shoot Through The Sprockets! Or, Using 35mm Film in a Holga.

2009-10-16T10:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I finally got a chance to play with the Holga-brand 35mm film adapter for the 120 format camera. I'm going to describe how I hacked it to shoot clear out to the sprocket holes and widened the frame to 2 1/4". The second half of the post touches on another way to cram a 35mm film reel into the Holga, using bits of foam to hold the spool in place.

First method using Holga 35mm Kit:

So, here's what the kit consists of. A camera back with no red viewing window, to replace the one the camera comes with, and a film mask that holds the 35mm spool in place and helps guide the film onto a 120 reel. It's pretty basic, and I'm not sure if it's really worth the $11, but the film mask does do a great job of holding the 35mm reel, and it's more elegant than the second method I'll be covering.

So, you'll notice that the film mask is cropped to a normal 35mm image size. Lame. That's not at all why I want to shoot 35mm film in the Holga. We're gonna cut into this mask and open it up to not only shoot out into the sprocket holes (totally rad looking), BUT we're also going to widen it up to take advantage of the Holga's 2 1/4" width. That way we get negatives that are panorama-wide and get the characteristic blurring and falloff towards the edges that Holgas are known for.

Get a new blade on your utility knife, and patiently and gently score along the raised inside edge of the film guide on the 35mm mask. Keep doing this, a couple dozen times, until you've cut through to the back side. Don't hurry this part, just apply enough pressure to go a little deeper with each cut.

When you've done the horizontal edges, flip the mask over and cut along the inside edge, opening the mask up to the full width.

When you've cut away all four sides, you'll hopefully wind up with this:

If you're cuts were a little messy, just smooth the edges with a nail file or some fine sandpaper. Film emulsion scratches very easily, so be sure there's no pokey bits.

Okay. Super. Now we get to toss some film in this bad boy.

Cut off the film leader at a 90° angle.

Put the spool of 35mm film into the camera, and draw out enough film to touch the 120 spool on the other side. Using tape, attach the film to the empty spool.

Here's the new camera back supplied with the kit. Mine does not fit all that well on the back of my Holga, and I suspect that it leaks light quite a bit, so you might want to use black electrical tape to cover up the seams.

So there's the first method for loading 35mm film into the Holga. If you don't have the 35mm film adapter kit, read on:

Second Method without kit:

You'll need a bit of upholstery foam or any kind of squishy, springy foam.

Depending on the density of the foam, cut out 1" cubes of foam, and place on the top and bottom of the left film reel chamber.

Cram your 35mm roll of film between the two cubes of foam, and pull out enough film to touch the 120 film spool on the other side. As in the first method, square off your film leader, and tape to the empty 120 film spool.

Cut another bit of foam, this time about 2 1/2" long, a little less than an inch or so wide, and a half-inch deep. Place this on top of the two cubes and the roll of 35mm film. Next, using black electrical tape, cover both the front and the back of the viewing window. 35mm film does not have a paper backing like 120 film, so light can and will enter the red viewing window and expose your 35mm film unless it is totally light-tight.

Now put the back on the camera, smooshing the film a bit, and everything should be held together pretty firmly. Now tape up the sides to seal out any errant light leaks. Or not, if that's the effect you're after.

Advancing the film in the camera:

There is a very helpful list over at the Photon Detector website that gives the correct number of clicks to advance the film in the camera, and since there's no frame numbers that we can see, counting clicks is the best way to ensure that we don't have overlapping frames. Again, unless that's the effect you're after!

Basically, I advance 45 clicks after loading the film to get to the first frame, then about 37 clicks between the next few frames, then 36 for a couple, then 34 for a couple, then 33 for one or two, then 32, 30 and then 29 once I start to get to the very end. I've never followed the spreadsheet all that carefully, I just know that as more film is taken up onto the take-up reel, the more film is moved with each click.

It works pretty well as long as I know approximately where I am in the roll.

Unloading the film from the camera:

The Holga has no way of rewinding film back onto the original spool. That's because 120 film does not need to be rewound, it just moves from one reel to another and the paper backing blocks out light. But we're going to have to get all that film back into the 35mm spool, and that has to be done in the dark.

So, get out your trusty changing-bag, or head into your darkroom, or get under the covers in your bed, and peel the tape off your camera. Once you're in the dark, pull off the back of the camera, pop out the 120 and the 35mm spools. Hold onto the knob on the top of the 35mm spool and wind the film from the 120 reel back into the 35mm spool. Go slowly and steadily, and try not to scratch the emulsion or twist it about.

Once you've wound the film back into the 35mm spool, you can turn on the lights, open the changing bag, or climb out from under the covers. Clip the film off the 120 spool, or just take the tape off. Congrats!

If you have your processing done at a lab, tell them not to cut your negatives. The machines are not set up to read an exposure with the dimensions we've created here, and can't automatically make very good prints, either. Tell the photo lab tech to just develop and sleeve the negatives, and then cut it yourself when you get home. If you're using an hour photo lab, they're probably going to look at you like a nut when you bring these in. Whatever. It keeps them on their toes.

This is what you should get back. One nice big strip of film, with super-wide exposures that go clear out to the sprocket holes! Now all that's left is to scan your images!

Happy Snapping!

Flickr 35mm Sprocket Holes Pool (not limited to Holga)

DIY Redscale Film!

2009-10-16T08:52:00.001-07:00

Out of all of the rad techniques out there that exist for playing with color film, by far one of my all time favs is making redscale film. It is really simple to do, and the results are stunning, especially if you use a toy camera such as the Holga.

There's a Wikepedia article here if you'd like to read more about how it works, but basically we're going to be exposing the film from the backside, and as the light hits the film layer first, instead of the emulsion, the blues and greens are mostly filtered out. What is left is the deep reds, maroons, and yellows. It all depends on the film. In my test yesterday, the cheap Fuji Sensia 400 speed gave me a vibrant orange-red hue. The light leaks that crept in added some brilliant blues to some of the images!

So gather up your materials. You'll need:

1 roll of 35 mm color film
1 empty roll of film with a bit of film left sticking out
some scotch tape
scissors
a changing bag, darkroom, or hide under your sheets (a bit dusty though)

Cut the leader off of the unexposed roll of film at a right angle. Make it as clean and straight as possible.

Now tape the unexposed film to the bit of film left sticking out of the empty roll, making sure it is backwards. In the pic above, the unexposed roll is on the left, the empty spool is on the right. Notice how the emulsion layer faces the camera on the unexposed roll, while the empty spool has its film layer facing us.

Pop it in the changing bag/darkroom/under your covers/etc. It doesn't matter as long as it is totally dark, and I mean NO light at all.

Now, I can't really show you the next step (because it's in the dark, duh), wind the film from the unexposed spool onto the empty one. Be gentle, the emulsion is easily scratched. Just grab the knob on the top of the empty spool and twist, moving the film from one spool to the other.

Once you've done that, making sure you're at the end of the roll, you can bring everything back into the light. You'll have to cut the film again, but make sure to leave a little flap of film sticking out of both reels, but especially the one that now has all the film in it.

This is what you should end up with. The reel with all the film on it is on the left, and the now empty spool is on the right. Notice how the emulsion layer faces us on the spool on the right. That's what we're after!

Now just load it into your camera and fire away! You'll notice I wrote a red "R" on my spool, that's to help me distinguish between redscale and regular film. But you can also tell because the emulsion side faces the back of the camera, and the glossy film side is now what gets exposed in the camera.

If you want to load this into a regular camera, that is, one with a standard take-up reel, you may need to trim the film a bit and make yourself a feed tab. On the holga it's no problem because I just tape it to a standard 120 format film reel and then unload the camera in a changing bag. But for normal 35 mm cameras (Slim Devil, LC-A, Lubitel, whatever) just snip away part of the top of the film and make a new leader.

Now get out there and take some crazy redscale pictures! Oh, and tell your photo processor that the emulsion is backwards and not to worry if everything comes out red. I forgot to mention that to my hour photo lab, and they were a little annoyed. Oops.

Happy snapping!

Flickr Redscale Film Pool

Moo Business Cards

2009-10-15T23:00:00.001-07:00

Today my Moo Business cards arrived! Moo is a printing company based out of Europe, but they have a printing press here in the US on the east coast. They make it very easy to have custom cards printed using your own images. But what really makes them special is that not every business card, mini card or postcard need to be the same image for the whole set. In fact, if you get a pack of 50 cards printed, each and every card can have its own photo on the front!

I used their handy Flickr tool to upload images to Moo from my Flickr account. The whole process moves seamlessly and was extremely intuitive. And now, a week later, I have my very own Foto Go-Go business cards right here in front of me!

A word on the quality. Most noticeable is that the cards are not your typical business card size. They are a little bit wider and not quite as long. If you're very particular on the size of your business cards, they may not work. I found the proportions to be extremely composition-friendly, however. That is to say; working out cropping on this slightly different aspect ratio was much easier than a traditional business card.

The heavyweight paper and the finish really make these cards sing. The color is especially nice. Shadow detail is a little muddy, but that could have been I was working from scans of prints instead of film scans. I will reevaluate the black & white cards after getting my next batch, now that I have a film scanner and can work directly from negatives.

All in all, I am extremely impressed with the quality of the cards, and the handsome, rugged display box is a nice touch! They arrived quickly even with standard shipping, and order tracking let me know where the cards were and when they'd get delivered.

Moo Printing USA

Happy snapping!

Low Cost, Low Profile Camera Bag

2009-10-13T16:35:00.001-07:00

I've gotten pretty sick and tired of trying to cram all of the photo gear that I think I'll need into my pockets lately, and yes, as a hobby photographer/lomographer, we really don't need much. Maybe a cheap tabletop tripod, some film, lens wipes, and some filters. Still, it's more than can easily, safely, or conveniently be carried in jacket or jeans pockets. I tend to pack pretty light (I went backpacking in Costa Rica last year for two weeks with 2 cameras and clothes, and didn't need to check a single bag), but I hate needing something out in the field and not having it.

The time had come. I knew I needed to get a bag of some sort. I needed something simple, something unassuming, and something rugged and padded enough to toss in the car or hike around in the urban landscape with.

Enter ROSS Dress For Less—or, as my drag queen friends lovingly call it—CROSS Dress For Less. It's basically where department store fashion goes to die. There's housewares, clothes, cheaply made gadgets and gifts, perfume, yadda yadda yadda, and BAGS. Every kind of bag you could want. I'm sure most cities and towns in the US have places like this.

Anyway.

So, I'm there and I'm looking for something robust, low-profile, padded, etc. and then BAM. There it is: The Notebook Computer Bag. To be sure, most notebook computers are pretty slim. But geeks tend to demand a more capacious bag than the middle management types. And being in San Francisco, we have lots of both.

Think about it. They're padded, tend to be pretty plain (they are designed, after all, to hold expensive electronics), and they can be slung over the shoulder.

After some digging, I found this little gem for $20 plus tax.

Basic, yet respectable enough.

Roomy enough inside the main compartment to hold my Holga 120N, a Holgon MultiFlash, and my digital camera (not pictured because I'm using it to take the pictures, durr.) There would still be enough room for another point and shoot, or my Nikormat and say, the Holga to sit alongside eachother. The only mod I had to make was to cut out the really narrow laptop holder. There's more than enough padding to compensate, and taking it out doubled the available space.

The front panel has enough room for my light meter (when working out exposures with the Yashicamat, which there is room for), filters and my envelope of theater gels for the holga, extra rolls of film, data cable, cable release, and a mini tripod. Also, there's a pocket for business cards, which I have come to learn is practically inexcusable not to have on hand. Business cards, even if they just have your personal contact info, help move you into the major leagues.

Et voilà! A photo bag well packed and ready to rock!

Print developing with instant coffee (yes, coffee!)

2009-10-13T14:09:00.001-07:00

Photo Credit: Tom Overton

At its most basic, photography and printing really is a simple process. The right chemicals and an understanding of the process are within almost anyone's ability to grasp. And though it becomes extremely nuanced, layered, and at times seemingly arcane once you start talking about camera types and emulsions and graded papers etc., photography is a hobby like anything else. It's my focus to bring a little simplicity and understanding to film photography, whether you're into lomography and toy cameras, or pinhole or fine art photography.

That said, I was overjoyed when I found this article about developing and printing using coffee as a film and print developer. It does not get much simpler than that! I'm excited to try this out sometime soon! If anyone has any experience in this process, leave some comments for others to read.

Happy Snapping!

Printing with Caffenol - Using Instant Coffee as a Print Developer by Tom Overton

Ansel Adams in the Darkroom

2009-10-11T19:56:00.001-07:00

Exceptional little clip from a documentary about Ansel Adams working in the darkroom. Touches on his use of burning in and dodging to highlight and add drama to compositions.

From the PBS American Experience program, Ansel Adams: A Documentary

Holga Photography

2009-10-11T08:11:00.001-07:00

Short little introduction to the Holga and an interview with a photographer that uses it!

Best quote from the movie:

"Focus settings include one person, three people, many people... and mountains!"

Flickr Gallery is now active on Foto Go-Go!!!

2009-10-06T17:18:00.001-07:00

Happy Tuesday!

Today I set up my flickr account and linked it to this blog. One the right column you should be able to view a small sample of recently uploaded pictures. Or just click here for the gallery.

I also ordered some photo business cards for the blog from moo.com. They have a printing service that allows you to send images over from flickr and have them printed out as business cards. Up to 50 different designs per pack! I'll post a review of how they came out after they get here.

-S.

Theater Gels as CHEAP Filters & Colorsplash Flash Filters!

2009-10-01T12:25:00.001-07:00

Last summer I was helping do costume design for a local theater production here in SF. I noticed all of those theater gels that they use on lights, and I asked the lead tech if I could have some scraps, since the gels come in big sheets that have to be cut down.

They were just throwing this stuff away! I'm sure you can display a little resourcefulness and find a theater in your area that uses these gels for stage lighting. More than likely they have some scraps laying around they wouldn't mind you having if you ask real nice or volunteer to be an usher or something.

Now, since the Holga has a plastic lens anyway, and it's not like we need polished, coated glass filters for this, I figured this would be a perfect economical and lightweight solution. Basically, you can cut these bits of colored plastic down to size with scissors, and then either tape or use a rubber band to hold them over the lens or the flash unit. So, for the price of nothing, we've got a set of colored filters to make our own colorsplash flash AND filters to go over the lens of the camera!

Ta-dah! Easy and cheap.

10 Golden Rules of Lomography

2009-09-27T10:29:00.001-07:00

Toy cameras yield surprising results. Sometimes I'm floored with amazement at the shots that come out, and other times I'm crushed with disappointment. I've learned to not take photography so seriously when I'm using a toy or homemade camera, far better to just shoot something and move on to the next moment, trying not to worry about what the shot will look like.

Some of the most glorious pictures have been ones that I utterly forgot about taking or didn't even take the time to set up the shot or worry about the camera settings. I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to visualize what the Holga is going to see, not like an SLR or TLR anyway, but maybe thats the low-budget thrill of using a toy camera?

So, in the spirit of serendipity, here are the 10 Golden Rules of Lomography as stated by the Lomographic Society:

1. Take your camera everywhere you go.
2. Use it any time – day and night.
3. Lomography is not an interference in your life, but part of it.
4. Try the shot from the hip.
5. Approach the objects of your Lomographic desire as close as possible.
6. Don’t think. (William Firebrace)
7. Be fast.
8. You don’t have to know beforehand what you captured on film.
9. Afterwards either.
10. Don’t worry about any rules.

Happy snapping!

She blinded me with science (and IR film)

2009-09-26T09:24:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I had the opportunity to shoot some more IR film with the Holga using the HOYA brand R72 IR filter.

Success!!! They turned out way over exposed, but that's a huge improvement over the last roll using the Opteka filter.

I used shutter speeds at about 1-4 seconds and got negs that were extremely dense. If you recall my last post on using IR film, you'll remember that I was using shutter speeds upwards of 15 seconds and getting underexposed frames.

I cannot recommend the Opteka brand filter and instead suggest that the Hoya filter to be the superior choice by a huge margin. All the characteristic IR effects are there, and I'm sure the sky would have been blacker had there not been an extremely hazy sky yesterday and had I not over exposed the shots so much.

Anyway, heres the contact sheet from yesterday...

Happy snapping!

Holga Hacks: Making a Custom Film Mask

2009-09-26T09:01:00.001-07:00

In this brief tut, I'll be discussing how I make a custom film mask for the Holga. There are other places on the web that cover this, but I thought I'd share my experience on the matter and give you some tips that I've found helpful.

First up, get your supplies together. An X-Acto knife with a fresh blade, some gaffer's tape, a straightedge, a pencil, coffee, and a cutting mat are the tools needed. You'll also need a Holga (duh) and—this here is my personal preference—a plastic notebook cover like the one shown. I like using these because it's a smooth, matte-black plastic. You can make a film mask using paper or cardstock, but paper is much more likely to scratch the film emulsion. Plus, these are much more durable and give you a neater edge. You can get between 6-8 film masks from one notebook cover

Measure out your cut lines. Here's the dimensions I use: 2 5/8" H by 3 1/4" W

This fits into the back of the camera nicely. The extra material on the sides is going to be folded back later on and taped down to secure it to the inside of the camera.

Use any shape you find pleasing. This one is just a simple arch over the top of the frame, with neat, squared sides. You could do pointed arches, circles, letters, or whatever. Really, go wild with this one. I love seeing what people come up with!

Like anything worth doing, I tend to get a little OCD with my projects. Use a brand new blade and a metal straightedge. Cutting plastic is trickier than paper, so go slow and let your inner compulsive disorder shine.

You may find that cutting the inside of your frame is easier to do first, rather than cutting the frame down to size. I like doing it this way, but do what you're comfy with.

Here I'm just checking the fit in the back of the camera. It fits! The extra on the sides there is going to be folded back in the next step.

Note: The camera sees not only a backwards image, but upside down as well, something I forgot when making this tutorial. Putting the arc at the top of the camera would place it along the BOTTOM of the frame. So, to get an arc across the TOP of my pictures, I should have put it on the BOTTOM of the camera. Remember this!

Here I'm marking where to score the film mask so that it fits in nicely and folds over the back of the exposure chamber.

Using the knife, just make one fine score-line where it's going to be folded. The weight of the blade is enough. You don't want to cut all the way through this one, just enough to make a nice, crisp fold.

Here we have the finished mask, ready to go into the camera!

And voila! But remember: This mask as pictured should be rotated so the arc is along the bottom to get the effect I was after. Remember to flip yours not only left to right (if it's asymmetrical), but upside down as well.

Happy snapping!

Establishing my fotogeek street-cred

2009-09-24T14:00:00.001-07:00

Picked up this shirt this weekend less than a block from my work! Grita and me were hanging out in hayes valley and she spotted this shirt at RAG on Laguna St. in SF. I think it was around $25.

Awesome find! It's my new Holga Superhero uniform; perfect for taking pictures and fighting crime!

Happy Snapping!

Yashica TLR

2009-09-24T13:53:00.001-07:00

A big welcome to the newest member of the medium-format family! Yesterday class was cancelled and I spotted this sweet little Yashica-Mat on Craigslist. Drove out to Walnut Creek, handed the dude $60 and walked away with the camera, some filters, a carrying bag, and a flash unit. Score!

I'd been thinking about getting a TLR as a sort of step up from the Holga. Don't get me wrong, I love the Holga for its simplicity, hackability, and cult following (how often have you been stopped by someone who says, "OMG! Is that a Holga?!"). But I've been hankering for something that I can turn out some really sharp looking medium format prints with.

A brief intro to the Yashica TLR: They were started as a clone to the Rolleiflex cameras which to my knowledge have been around since the 1920s, but were most popular in the 1950s and 60s, before action photography took off and 35mm and SLRs became the standard.

To focus, the camera is typically held at waist level and the operator looks down onto a ground-glass viewing screen instead of being held up to your face like SLRs and point & shoots. The image is also flipped from left to right, and takes some getting used to.

The top lens is the viewing lens, which feeds the ground-glass, and is used in composing the shot. The lower lens is the taking lens and is the one that exposes the film when the shutter fires. Knobs on the left and right of the two lenses control shutter speed and aperture settings, which on the Yashica-Mat are all part of the Copal shutter system.

Anyway, enough of all that. If you want to find out more about Yashicas or TLRs there are plenty of resources out there. They tend to get a little expensive on eBay, which is why I was stoked to see this one come up on CL. It seems to work just fine except for the B setting, which I understand is caused by dust and buildup in the shutter speed selecting mechanism, and is usually corrected by a little CLA. For now, I don't intend to use the bulb setting much anyway, so I'll probably put a few rolls through it and see how that goes before sending it out for a cleaning.

Happy snapping!

App Review: Massive Dev Chart for iPhone

2009-09-19T09:44:00.001-07:00

For as long as I've been developing my own black & white film, I've been consulting the huge cheat-sheet and database known as The Massive Dev Chart. I'm sure many of you already know what an incredible tool this is for looking up suggested developing times and such for practically any film/developer combination. There are films and developers I've never even heard of.

Now, in the past, I'd been clumsily logging on to the Massive Dev Chart via a Safari browser window on my iPhone while in the darkroom; totally ignorant of the fact that there's an app for that. (There, I said it. I'm one of those obnoxious iPhone fanboys that gets to say, "Oh yeah, there's an app for that.")

Now, I've downloaded a bunch of apps, and most of them are used for about 2 days before being ignored, forgotten and eventually deleted by me. This app, however, fills a niche so perfectly that you can count me as one of it's biggest fans, and this review is an attempt to explain why.

First off, when you load the app for the first time, you're presented with a large alphabetical list of b&w films. Some popular and well known, and others... Not so much. Going down the list I found some of my fav 35mm films, as well as my perennial favorite 120 film for the Holga, Freestyle's Arista EDU Ultra. There are buttons along the top to select between 35mm, 120, and sheet film.

You can also change the ISO of some films if you plan on push/pull processing.

After selecting your film of choice, you're presented with a list of developers that have been tested to work with your film and with which there exists data for development times/ratios/temperatures.

The next screen after selecting your developer is the timer screen, where a breakdown of film, developer, and time and temp. are all listed in the top half. The lower half of the screen shows a bar graph, that once you start the timer, gives a visual representation of how much time is left in each step of the process. Also, audio reminders tell you when each step is completed, and it does not mess with iTunes if you're listening to music from your iPhone, it just chimes over it.

I'd also like to point out that when the timer is not active, you can edit each step of the process with custom times, inversion cycles, and rinse and stop bath settings, overriding the default presets suggested by the app. You can also change the temperature of the developer solution, which according to the authors, will automatically adjust the development times using something called a "bilinear interpolation algorithm", which, to be quite frank, is getting a little too deep in the dork forest even for me.

You can even add notes to each process if you have any special reminders you'd like to jot down for next time.

Moving on to the favorites button, you can add film/developer combinations that you use frequently, and once you save it, you can edit the development settings and notes they'll stay there for you! Just click the "+" button along the top of the favorites menu, and by following the simple steps above, you can have convenient access to your most used processes.

In conclusion, I've found this app to be not only a great convenience in the darkroom (it is much more elegant and consistent that fumbling around with paper notes and trying to look up development times online), but also a solidly built and extremely well thought out app. Everything works in an extremely intuitive manner, and the audio reminders are extremely helpful.

I can honestly say that at $5.99, this is the best value of any app I own, and one that is used by me constantly. Go ahead and pick up a copy over at the iTunes App Store!!!

Shooting in Infrared UPDATE 9/18

2009-09-17T08:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had the opportunity to go ahead and shoot a roll of the Efke IR 820, but it was not without its frustrations. The first roll that I put in the Holga broke after the tape fixing the film to the paper backing was somehow stuck on itself, causing the paper backing to rip in half, making advancing the film impossible. I probably could have saved it by taping it back together while shielded in a changing bag, but of course I had no idea what had happened.

Scratch one roll of film.

The next one loaded in fine. The sun came out and I drove to Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, CA. I knew based on previous experience and advice from others that it's always advisable to err on the side of too much exposure with this film. I used the cable release and exposed from between 15-30 seconds in full sun.

After processing for 7 minutes in T-MAX dev at 68°F, I was elated to see there was indeed an image. Sadly, even with such long exposure times, the negs turned out extremely thin. I spent the better part of two hours in the darkroom yesterday trying to get a decent print out of the roll, but no real success. It's way too frustrating to try and get good prints off bad negatives.

Here's the contact sheet and a sample image that I scanned. (click the picture to view larger image)

Now, you may detect an air of madness, but I like to think of it as tenacity. I ordered 3 more rolls of this film today, as well as a Hoya brand R72 IR filter (the one I have now is a much cheaper Opteka brand).

I'm going to try this again, but I'm still naming my first ulcer Efke.

The original post is below

Yesterday my package from Freestyle Photo arrived. I'd ordered some RC paper and a bunch of their Arista EDU branded film (which I love, btw). But also, and more importantly, two rolls of Efke IR 820 film. There's a Flickr gallery here.

Now, this is my second time at the rodeo with this film. The first was a year ago in Costa Rica. I'd packed along a couple rolls along with my trusty Holga and my cable release and my IR filter, took pictures in Monteverde and Fortuna, only to get home, develop the film, and.....

Nothing. Not a damn frame or even a ghost of an image. The numbers along the film edge showed up just fine, but everything else was crystal clear as though no exposure took place. Now, I know that IR film is supposedly touchy, but you would think that a light-leak or a fogged frame or something would have shown up upon developing.

I was so disappointed. I'd seen such beautiful and surreal images from people using this film in their Holgas, and here I'd just wasted $20 of film with nothing to show for it. (It's 10 bucks a roll, which for an art student is a fairly expensive mistake.)

So, before I get carried away, here's my setup: I was using a small tabletop tripod, the holga cable release, an Opteka R72 Infrared Filter, and of course, the Efke IR 820 film.

I had no light meter or anything to figure out exposure times, if I recall correctly I was trying to bracket shots from between 4 and 15 seconds. This may have been far to short, because I'm pretty sure the skies were overcast the entire time even though it was mid day. Another thing, it might be the filter. I don't think it is, though. The Opteka R72 filter should just filter out every wavelength below 720 nm, and the film is sensitive to light up to 820 nm (which is way into infrared territory). Plus, I've used this filter on my digital camera, and it works fine.

In short, I don't know what the deal was last year when I tried this film, but I'll have another go at it as soon as the sun comes out. I've been wanting to do some infrared work over at Mountain View Cemetery, and I'd better do it soon while there's still leaves on trees!

Happy snapping!

Humble Holga

2009-09-16T19:19:00.001-07:00

Ah, the Holga. Behind this simple plastic body, fixed shutter speed, an aperture setting that arrives to you basically DOA, and a molded plastic meniscus lens, beats the heart of a quirky little camera. The back regularly falls off, the sides tend to leak light, loading and unloading the camera takes an iron will, and even when you do everything right, it is impossible to predict how your shots will turn out. Yet it is that serendipity that makes the camera so much fun. You see, no matter how hard you try to be consistent, if you were to take three pictures of the same thing, you'd have three very different pictures. The way I shoot, I take exactly ONE photo of a subject and then move on (unless it's a portrait project). In the era of pixel-perfect pictures, it is refreshing to use such an unassuming camera. Plus, If you've never worked with medium format film, I can tell you that it is a singular joy. The negatives, compared to 35mm, are HUGE.

So, this here is my first and currently only Holga camera. We'll call this one Mark I, just to distinguish it from any future Holga additions to my stable of cameras. One of the first things I did was screw a threaded step-up ring into the end of the lens barrel. This lets me use the standard filters that I have for my Nikon. Make sure whatever step-up ring you get has a beginning size of 46mm. Mine goes from 46mm to 52mm. To get it on there, you basically just shove it into the end of the Holga's lens barrel while twisting the threads into the plastic. It's tight, but it works great and that sucker is going nowhere.

Also, I had a spare lens cap from an old Nikon lens. Pops right on there, with a little lanyard to keep it handy.

Now, I also flocked the inside of the camera. When I got my Holga, the inside was shiny black plastic. If there's too much light bouncing around the inside of the picture chamber you're likely to notice reduced contrast and errant glare (which may be a look you're after, I don't know.) There's a great article about flocking a Holga here at Squarefrog. Basically, you mask off the bits you don't want to get paint on 'em (frame counter window, shutter mechanism, and foam pads) and hit the inside with some matte black paint.

Also, I did the aperture mod—again, found here at Squarefrog. Now you may already know this, but the Holga, upon arrival, comes with an aperture plate that swings over the shutter mechanism. The hole in the aperture plate, however, is LARGER than the one in the shutter mechanism. It doesn't pinch off any of the light coming through the camera because the hole behind it is bigger. Here, you can see the aperture lever set to cloudy/indoor to let in all the light it can.

So, really it's as if you were looking through a peephole in a door, and someone held an innertube on the outside of the door so that it went around the opening. Would any of the light be blocked from coming through the peephole? No, because the innertube is much larger than the peephole.

Basically this mod takes the innertube and puts a smaller ring inside of it (in this case a metal washer), lowering the amount of light coming into the camera.

And here the aperture lever is set to sunny. You'll notice I didn't paint the washer black. I kind of like the bright halo effect I get in some pictures that have strong light coming into the lens, it doesn't happen every time, but when it does its usually a pretty neat effect.

So there's the Mark I in a nutshell. Oh yes, I also removed the stop on the lens so that I can twist it a bit further than normal, allowing me to focus in closer.

I'm contemplating what other mods I'd like to do if I were to get another Holga. The good thing about cheap-as-dirt photography is that it's so easy to hack and tweak your equipment, and if you end up breaking something, it's hardly the end of the world. I can do things I'd never try with, say, an antique TLR or my Nikkormat.

Happy snapping!

Making a custom negative carrier

2009-09-15T16:19:00.000-07:00

So, back when I got my Beseler 23CII enlarger (a screaming deal if I've ever seen one), I was stuck to working with 35mm format. Not only did I lack a big enough lens to cover the 120 format negatives (more on that later), but I also lacked a negative carrier. Dorking around on eBay turned up a few, ranging in conditions from unused to abominable. Still, I'm a true DIY-er, and yes, while I could have just purchased one, I did what any self-employed geek with too much free time would do; I made one.

Now, to be fair, I did have a friend later on who loaned me one made out of green mat board.

I'm sure it could have been pressed into service just fine, but it definitely lacked the exacting tolerances that you get from a metal negative carrier. Also, I much prefer the "full frame" effect you get when the negative carrier opening is larger than the image size on the negative. This one cuts into the image area too much for my taste.

So, I had some plastic stock left over from fabricating my custom lens boards (props to the guys over at Tap Plastics). I quickly learned that it is one thing to drill out holes and score and snap straight lines in plastic, and quite another to try and use a roto-zip to bore out perfectly clean lines. Also, it's just a fucking mess. And I'm still finding little black plastic bits all over the workroom.

And, as you can see, the edges got pretty ragged. I'm not generally opposed to ragged edges, per se, but this thing scratched the hell out of my negatives on a regular basis. No bueno.

At the art supply store yesterday, I found some double-thickness black mat board. I figured that, while not possessing the rigidity of metal, at least should hold up well enough to service as a negative carrier. I also surmised that using a mat cutter would bevel the edges away from the negative, keeping light from bouncing around and reflecting down onto the print, a problem with my metal negative carrier.

So here's my solution: A black negative carrier, custom fit to a size that I like, with beveled edges that should help keep reflection down.

So here's how I went about it:

1. Make a pattern. I feel better planning things out on paper first, but you do what you want. For the Beseler 23CII, starting with a 7" x 7" square, plopping the hole right in the center, and nipping the two corners off works really well. (This walkthrough is for a 35mm carrier with sprocket holes showing. You can make these things in any size or aspect ratio you want.)

2. Now, start cutting down your mat boards. Get them as perfectly squared as you can.

3. Lay out your grid lines on the negative side of the mat board and get out your trusty mat cutter. Make sure that bad boy has a blade sharper than justice. You're gonna have to cut through some thick shit. Shown here is the Logan "pull" style mat cutter. If you don't have a mat cutter, do yourself a favor and get one. Trust.

What you can't see in those images is the scrap piece of mat board underneath the soon-to-be negative carrier. That part is important, because those self-healing mats don't take diagonal cuts all that well. They're better used for cuts that go straight through.

Anyway, this is what you should have:

What step are we on? Oh, right.

4. Make another one of these. Hopefully you do it perfectly enough that the two windows line up as so:

5. Now we're gonna hinge these two halves with some gaffer's tape. I friggin love this stuff. It's strong, flexible, and matte black.

So here's what it looks like:

Ta-dah!

Here's what we get with a negative loaded between the panels:

The only thing else I've contemplated doing is to spray some sealant on the insides and then some matte black paint to really smooth out the insides and keep any errant paper fibers from scratching the emulsion. Also, I tend to overcut quite a bit (as you can see), and I think the paint will help seal over the cuts. I'll try it and let you know. For now, though, these work great. They can be cut into any shape or size that you want, say if you have some panoramic shots or if you shoot your Holga with the 4x6 insert.

Here are some more gratuitous shots of the 120 negative holder all loaded up...

Foto Go-Go

How to Create Rugged High-Impact Portraits with Photoshop

Shooting in Fog or Mist to Capture Lighting Effects

Way Beyond Monochrome is on the way...

Shooting in Golden Gate Park with Jose & Emily

Project Pinholaroid

Now THIS is dedication

Mea Culpa

Review of the Canon CanoScan 8800F Film/Flatbed Scanner

Miles Aldridge for the Lavazza 2010 Calendar

Making Film Photography Cheaper (or at least something approaching affordable)

Shoot Through The Sprockets! Or, Using 35mm Film in a Holga.

DIY Redscale Film!

Moo Business Cards

Low Cost, Low Profile Camera Bag

Print developing with instant coffee (yes, coffee!)

Ansel Adams in the Darkroom

Holga Photography

Flickr Gallery is now active on Foto Go-Go!!!

Theater Gels as CHEAP Filters & Colorsplash Flash Filters!

10 Golden Rules of Lomography

She blinded me with science (and IR film)

Holga Hacks: Making a Custom Film Mask

Establishing my fotogeek street-cred

Yashica TLR

App Review: Massive Dev Chart for iPhone

Shooting in Infrared *UPDATE 9/18*

Humble Holga

Making a custom negative carrier

Shooting in Infrared UPDATE 9/18